‘Problematic’ polygraph for top IDF officer accused of rape

A polygraph test undertaken by a senior army officer accused of rape has produced “problematic” findings, according to a report Sunday.

Brig. Gen. Ofek Buchris — a highly decorated officer who had been expected to rise to the very top of the IDF hierarchy — has vehemently denied accusations by two female former soldiers of at least five counts of rape, in addition to sodomy and sexual assault.

At the beginning of last week, Buchris, 47, underwent a polygraph test under the auspices of the Military Police’s investigation’s unit.

The results were only revealed to him two days later when, during a third round of questioning, investigators challenged him on the results, Channel 2 reported.

“At least some of the results of the last test were problematic from his [Buchris’] point of view,” the report said, adding that the officer’s defense team had refused to comment.

When the scandal broke, Buchris commissioned his own polygraph test, during which he denied sleeping with a soldier under his command [the first woman to come forward] and having full sexual relations with her. He answered no to both questions, and the technician who conducted the test reported that he believed Buchris “telling the truth,” Haaretz reported.

On Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot rescinded Burchris’s nomination to command the army’s Operations Division amid the ongoing investigation. Eisenkot also extended a two-week suspension of the officer by another month.

The decision to cancel Buchris’s appointment as the head of the Operations Division, a major position within the IDF, was made due to the realization that the investigation into the case will take “not days, but months,” according to an IDF spokesperson.

“The decision does not have to do with the [content of the] investigation, which is ongoing, but under the understanding that the head of the Operations Division is a core position in the IDF’s operations and the investigation will take time,” the official said.

Buchris’s IDF-provided attorney, Col. Asher Halperin, said he understood and supported Eisenkot’s decision, as such investigations, “by their very nature, take a long time.”

“As the chief of staff explained in his conversation with Brig.-Gen. Buchris, it was difficult to wait to appoint a new head of the Operations Division, a central and sensitive position,” Halperin said in a statement.

“The chief of staff’s decision came only from the issue of the investigation’s expected duration,” Halperin said.

Buchris was supposed to take over the position from Brig. Gen. Aharon Haliva this month, but Eisenkot will now have to find a different replacement.

The position is generally seen as a steppingstone to higher office, as the brigadier general who serves in the role manages the army’s most important missions and works closely with the IDF General Staff. Indeed, many chiefs of the general staff have served in the position, including Gabi Ashkenazi, as have many major generals who currently serve on the General Staff.

It would not be the first time that the promotion of a potential candidate was derailed by allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse.

In 1999, the High Court of Justice blocked the promotion of Brig.-Gen. (res.) Nir Galili to major general and head of an army corps, in light of an affair Galili had with an subordinate officer three years prior.

Former minster and IDF general Yitzhak Mordechai was also found guilty of sexually assaulting three women in 2001 and was forced into abandoning his political career. One of the victims was a former soldier, who served in his office when he was the head of the army’s Northern Command in 1992.

However, if Buchris is indeed found guilty, the case would be the most dramatic and truly shocking example of sexual assault in the IDF, in terms of the severity of the charges against him and the suddenness with which these allegations would have derailed an illustrious career.